THE STORY:
This is will be the 12th time this team will have participated in the Golden Gate Relay. Looking back, the Relay meant that I was afforded the opportunity to spend a weekend with friends, making new and reliving old memories, and challenging myself in a sport I am obsessed with (to say the least), but it was only peripherally about the cause the Relay supports, organ donation, via its charity Organs'R'Us.
I knew Dean Karnazes was running for an organ recipient every year. I knew what I told employers or people not familiar with the event, but that certainly wasn't what I thought of when I thought of the Relay. That changed for me the summer of 2011 when I lost my mom to liver disease. By the time she was sick enough for a liver transplant, she was too sick to accept the organ. She and all other potential recipients are required to wait until they are extremely sick to become eligible for a organ donation.
They are forced to walk a very thin line between life and death, but through continued funding of the Relay's cause, we may be able to broaden that line. Make organ transplants easier and more readily available, so that others will not have to worry about becoming to sick to ultimately be healed.
That is my experience, but there are many on the Barbarian team that have similar experiences, and it is because of those experiences that we now run the Relay. We much appreciate those with the capacity and desire to contribute to the Relay's cause. Thank you.
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